Proud employee and alumnus watches son soar at UWindsor
Alex Bonadonna is a second-year Commercial Aviation Leadership student, seen here after completing his first solo flight in December 2025. (PHOTO BY JOHN-PAUL BONADONNA / University of Windsor)
Editor's Note: Alex Bonadonna is the son of PAC Communications Specialist John-Paul (J.P.) Bonadonna (BA Hons. ‘00). This is a first-person account of joining his son, now a pilot, for his first-ever passenger flight.
By John-Paul Bonadonna
When my son Alex Bonadonna was in Grade 11, his strengths seemed to point him toward a fairly conventional path.
As a student excelling in STEM, engineering seemed like the obvious direction.
The only problem — he wasn’t particularly excited about it.